The Plan Never Survives—But Seafood Always Does : Musings from SENA 2025

You always walk in with a bulletproof plan. Your SENA strategy. Booths of note, people to track down, meetings lined up, receptions you can hit off like whack-a-mole if you time your circuit right. All spreadsheet color coded, ready to rock.

Every battle plan is a work of art…until the first shot’s fired.

Then it all goes to hell in a handbasket. You knew it was going to happen this way. It’s not your first rodeo; you’re not even phased.

The very nature of seafood is oh, so subject to change. It’s the awareness you need to bring to work in this industry, and the energy you need to embody for this conference. A little bit “get it done”, a little bit “f*ck it let’s roll.”

Yes, Seafood Expo North America is about business, networking, deal-making, and catching up on industry trends. But the gold hewn veins of the SENA experience are missed if you’re too fixed on things going a certain way. How like life. How particularly like life in 2025…

It’s unhinged times out there, and no we’re not just referring to the conference. We couldn’t help but approach this year’s event with a low-key wariness. Between shifting global landscape of tightening markets, tensing geo-political relationships, and a general feeling of ‘WTF’s coming next?’ To say the future looks uncertain is an understatement of the highest order.

And yet—the world has come here to play.

While the banner reads North America, this show is global. Europe, Asia, South and Central America—everywhere seafood is caught, farmed, processed, moved, sold, and enjoyed, people showed up. To work together. To listen. To share stories, small joys, and quiet victories.

Cards swapped. Swag exchanged. Hands shaken. Overdue conversations started. And a quiet, undeniable truth rings through every interaction: We want to make this work.

Not just because business depends on it in an industry relies on trade, movement, and a complex web of partnerships to function. But because, at its core, seafood is human. It is relationship-based, trust-built, and driven by generations of people who have dedicated themselves to pulling food from the sea and getting it to the world.

There are few industries as deeply connected to both history and survival as seafood. It is woven into the culture, music, and folklore of coastal communities. It is the lifeblood of economies, the foundation of food security, the centerpiece of tradition, celebration, and identity across cultures.

And that’s exactly why spaces like this matter. Because no matter how turbulent the waters, no matter how tense the political and economic landscape, when seafood people gather we’re reaffirming our commitment to this way of life.

The intrinsic connection of seafood harvesters to their vocation—pulling sustenance from the great blue abyss—has remained stalwart since people first set out to sea. It has survived pestilence, war, and all manner of turmoil humans can conjure up to fling at each other, and that same unwavering dedication thrums through the trade hall today.

So while the outside world might be fracturing, inside these walls, seafood professionals are still shaking hands, swapping ideas, and finding ways forward—together.

There’s a quiet kind of courage in showing up right now. With Canada and the U.S. engaged in a back-and-forth on tariffs, and ongoing challenges in sustainability, climate change, and consumer trust, it would be easy for companies to retreat into their own corners. Shields up and all that. But instead, the opposite is happening. We’re coming together.

Within the crush, the floor today was littered with uniquely glimmering moments. A handshake that lingers just a little longer because these two have been through it together. A laugh between competitors who get that they’re on the same ocean, facing the same storms.

There’s something undeniably human about this.

Watching folks reunite with old colleagues, introduce new business partners, and flop down into chairs at the end of the day over a drink and mutually howling feet and talk like people. There's a drive to keep building relationships even when the bigger picture feels uncertain. It's a reminder that while policies shift and headlines scream about division (and they’re not wrong, it’s unhinged times on the streets), the seafood industry continues to be built on relationships and connection.

So today may not have gone according to the initial playbook (does it ever?), but amongst the fray, we witnessed something exciting: our industry isn’t just surviving; it’s evolving. And it’s these seafood lovers, thinkers, and doers with the courage to keep showing up, and the willingness to build something better, that are making that evolution possible.

The old ways of siloed competition and secret-keeping are giving way to something else: coexistence, collaboration, and a recognition that we’re stronger together. And there couldn’t possibly be a better time.

It won’t be easy. When has it ever been? And yet, we’re still here.

There’s your hype speech for the day. Now throw back that triple espresso, wipe the St. Paddy’s Day haze from your eyes, and get the heck out there.

We’ve got seafood and stories to share.